


Shelter for Those Who Seek It

by jujitsuelf



Category: The Losers (2010), The Losers (Comic), The Losers - All Media Types
Genre: Hypothermia, M/M, Op gone wrong, Prompt Fill
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-11-06
Updated: 2013-11-06
Packaged: 2017-12-31 16:09:26
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,853
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1033678
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/jujitsuelf/pseuds/jujitsuelf
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>prompt fill for - 'author's choice - author's choice - the mountain chapel'</p>
            </blockquote>





	Shelter for Those Who Seek It

**Author's Note:**

> Disclaimer – All publicly recognizable characters, settings etc. are the property of their respective owners. The original characters and plot are the property of the author. No money is being made from this work. No copyright infringement is intended
> 
> ***
> 
> This is a bit too long for a prompt fill really but the story just got away from me.
> 
> ***
> 
> Thanks to 3white_mage3 and saral_hylor for the read-throughs and enthusiasm. And thanks to fanficfan83 for the Italian translation.

The wind shrieked through the narrow cleft of rock in which the Losers had taken shelter. It really was a devil’s symphony, endless high-pitched whistling which shredded both nerves and voices.

Cougar huddled down into his coat and tried to ignore it. But the wind was like nails on a blackboard, just the right pitch to send painful shivers down his spine and raise goosebumps on even that skin which wasn’t being attacked by the cold.

Jensen was next to him, equally miserable and trying to curl himself into the smallest ball possible. Pooch, Clay and Roque were a few feet away on the other side of a razor sharp piece of rock which jutted out into their tiny hideyhole.

The whole mission had been a clusterfuck from the very start. Bad intel, awful weather and inconsistent bad guys had screwed everything beyond belief. After losing the man they were supposed to be lifting, Clay had broken radio silence and asked what the hell they were supposed to do. Command responded with the simple instruction to ‘wait out for extraction.’

That had been two days ago and Cougar was starting to get a little worried that this whole thing may have been a setup. But who or why didn’t really matter, at that moment survival was all that counted.

Jensen huddled closer. The only part of him visible was his eyes, the rest of his face was swathed in scarves and his coat collar. Cougar shifted a little on his less than comfortable perch, allowing the younger man to cuddle in and try to share some body heat.

“This is seriously fucked up!”

Jensen’s voice barely made it to Cougar’s ears before the wind whipped it away and dashed it to pieces on the rocks around them.

Cougar settled for nodding a reply. Moaning about it wouldn’t make their situation any better. He glanced up at the sky. The cloud base was ominously low and a deep, angry grey. No chopper pilot would relish the job of coming to find them, surely command wouldn’t order anyone to fly in weather like that.

His fingers were practically numb, but Cougar felt around in his pockets for his precious chocolate stash. Locating it, he nudged Jensen and offered the little bar of Cadbury’s Dairy Milk.

It was probably un-American, but he still held out that British chocolate was better than any other. Every time they made it to the UK, he bought as much of the stuff as he could and hoarded it viciously when they got home.

Jensen mumbled a thank you and took the bar, fumbling with the wrapper for a minute longer than he should have. Cougar watched him bite a piece off and savour it for a moment before a full-body shiver made him shudder against Cougar. Frowning, Cougar reached out and vigorously rubbed Jensen’s nose, it was worryingly white.

It took a moment for Jensen to bat Cougar’s hand away. Even then, his movements were clumsy and uncoordinated. That was it. Cougar scrambled to his feet and carefully clung to the rocky outcrop which separated them from Clay.

“Need to move!” he yelled.

As expected, the wind tore his words to shreds in seconds. He leaned forward and smacked at Clay’s shoulder, finally getting his attention.

“Need to move,” Cougar repeated. “Jensen’s bad.”

“Hypothermia?” Clay mouthed, not bothering to try to make himself heard over the gale.

Cougar nodded. It was the start of it, at least. Jensen wasn’t clumsy and uncoordinated, so this was something which had to be dealt with. He glanced at Pooch and Roque. Neither of them looked too great either. They had to find some kind of shelter or things could turn very serious, very quickly.

“Okay,” Clay nodded, heaving himself to his feet. “Get ‘em moving, Cougs.”

Scrambling back to their side of the rock, Cougar poked and pulled Jensen to his feet.

“Come on, Jensen, move. We gotta find some shelter, man, move it!”

Jensen mumbled something which Cougar had no chance of hearing, the wind whipped it away so fast. He looked dull and tired and wasn’t moving at anywhere near his usual speed.

Cougar inwardly cursed. Hypothermia was one of those things which he’d always worried about but never actually had to deal with. Up until now. Pretty soon Jensen would start feeling light-headed and might get more irrational than ever. But his shoulders were still shaking with shivers beneath Cougar’s gloved hands, so that was one good thing. When he stopped shivering all together, things would be very bad.

***

Cougar took point, not his usual position, but Clay figured it was better to bring up the rear so that he could check and make sure none of the others got themselves into trouble and dropped out of line.

There was a faint goat track leading down the treacherous cliff face. Cougar looked at it and wrinkled his nose. Shit. If he led the way down there, they’d be scraping Jensen and possibly Pooch off the rocks a few hundred feet below in no time.

He stared up at the solid rock above them. Nothing up there which might offer shelter and warmth, either. It seemed they were damned if they did take the track and equally damned if they didn’t. Fuck command for sending them to such a dead-end spot in the first place. Even if they had managed to lift the target, what the hell were they supposed to have done with him while they waited for the stupid chopper to come up and get him?

A loud clatter on the path behind Cougar made him turn. Pooch had lost his footing and gone sprawling to the ground in a flurry of limbs and pack and weapons. Roque was trying to help him back up but looked worryingly unsteady on his feet as well.

Cougar growled behind his scarf. He really, really hated the cold. Inside his gloves, his fingers felt like solid ice, wiggling them produced no extra blood flow. A moment’s panic ate at him, what if he got frostbite? What if he lost his fingers? What use was a sniper without all his fingers? Giving himself a mental slapping, he tried to calm down. Everything would be fine, he just needed to find somewhere with a little more shelter.

Flecks of snow began to dance in front of his eyes. Great, that was all they needed, snow would bring everyone’s core temperatures down even more. Normally, if one or more of them was suffering from the cold and felt the need to rest for a while, that would be okay. But right now they couldn’t afford to stop, if they weren’t moving there was a danger they might sit down and lose the energy to get back up again.

Wriggling his frozen toes inside his boots, Cougar grimaced at the goat track. Well, if that was the only way down, so be it. It wasn’t as though they could go back the way they’d come, the target’s compound guards would be on high alert, waiting for them to do just that. Getting shot would add insult to injury and really wasn’t worth the risk.

He turned and motioned to Roque, who was next in line behind him. Roque staggered slightly as he made to come and join Cougar, but gamely carried on and regained his footing. He winced when he saw the track, Cougar nodded. It wasn’t ideal but what choice did they have?

Pooch, Jensen and Clay joined them, all staring unhappily at the steep cliff and tiny path.

“No other way,” Cougar yelled.

Clay nodded.

Jensen poked Cougar in the back and pointed at something up ahead.

Straining his eyes to see through the worsening snow, Cougar could just make out the dim form of some kind of structure with straight lines. Straight lines did not occur in nature, was it something man-made? Up there? No way.

“Is that...?” Cougar trailed off, not bothering to make his throat more raw by voicing a question nobody could answer.

“Looks like a building to me,” Clay shouted. “Let’s go.”

Stumbling and slipping on the rocks, in danger of broken ankles or worse at every moment, the five of them made their way toward the little structure.

As they grew closer, the wind seemed to increase in its fury. It was like a living demon, desperate to tear every last breath from their bodies before they made it inside the heaven-sent shelter.

Cougar slitted his eyes as much as he dared against the now driving snow and kept his head down. Jensen was behind him, slipping and wavering as he tried to walk in Cougar’s snowy bootprints. One last stumble sent him careening into Cougar, both of them crashing to the ground, painfully jarring elbows and knees.

“Fuck,” Jensen said thickly. “Sorry...can’t...too slippy...”

Pooch and Clay hooked their hands under Jensen’s armpits and by some miracle hauled him upright. Pooch looked just as bad as Jake, his normally cheerful face pinched and pale with the cold. His teeth chattered audibly even over the howling wind and it would have been impossible for him to hold his weapon, his hands were shaking so badly.

Cougar scrambled to his feet, ignoring a nagging pain in his left calf. Not bothering to wait for Clay’s usual nod of encouragement, he covered the last few feet to the door at a shambling run. His gloved hands didn’t seem to make much noise as he banged on the age-blackened wood, but whoever was inside obviously heard it, as the door swung open almost immediately.

A round, kindly face peered out at them. The man it belonged to couldn’t have been a day under seventy but his eyes sparkled a bright, intelligent green. Taking one look at Cougar, still swathed in scarves and shivering so hard his teeth hurt, the man pulled the door open all the way and beckoned them inside.

Amazingly, it was warm and toasty inside the little building. A crackling fire burned in a brazier against one wall and thick rugs lay on the floor, insulating it perfectly. The heat was like balm on Cougar’s frozen skin, instantly beginning to melt the icy feeling in his extremities.

Jensen and Pooch made it inside the door before sinking gratefully to the floor. Roque followed a moment later, his breathing shallow and too slow. Clay’s face was grey with fatigue and strain but he managed to nod to the elderly man.

“Thank you.”

Cougar figured Clay had forgotten they were high in the Italian Alps, so said in the best Italian his cold-fuddled brain could manage, “Grazie, non posso dire como siamo grati per il vostro aiuto.” (Thank you, I can’t tell you how grateful we are.)

The old man smiled and held up both hands. “Please, you can speak English, although I appreciate the Italian.”

It was a good thing the man spoke English, Cougar’s Italian was passable but not up to full in-depth conversations. He nodded and sank to his knees next to Jensen.

“Can I offer you a hot drink?” Those sharp green eyes rested on Cougar’s.

Cougar had the sudden, bizarre feeling that the man could see right the way down into his soul and beyond. Shaking it off, he nodded and replied, “Yes, please, we need to get warmed up, we’ve been out there too long.”

“Make yourselves at home,” the old man said calmly, as though five uniformed and half-frozen soldiers crashed through his door on a regular basis. “I’ll be back in a moment.”

Cougar switched his attention back to Jensen, who had at least started to shiver more than he had been outside, which was a good sign.

“Jesus,” Jensen said, hugging his arms around himself. “I hate the fucking cold. Next op, want to be in the Caribbean, ‘kay, Clay?”

Clay huffed out an exhausted laugh and unwound his ice encrusted scarf from his neck. “’kay, kid.” He frowned at Roque, then kneeled down and pressed a hand to the big man’s cheek. “Hey, you with us?”

“Yeah,” Roque swatted Clay’s fingers away. “Just gimme a minute.”

The warmth permeated Cougar’s clothes and elation flooded through him. It wasn’t unlike being drunk, the giddy happiness which swamped him and made every inch of skin tingle.

“Cougs?” Jensen’s eyes were still a little unfocussed. “Y’okay?”

Cougar nodded. “Si, fine.” He pulled at Jensen’s still frozen coat and scarf. “Get these off, come on, help.”

“Can’t wait to get me out of my clothes, huh?” Jensen said, still slurring slightly. “You randy little kitty, you.”

Cougar stopped, waiting for Clay to say something. While he and Jensen hadn’t exactly made a secret of their ‘thing’, they hadn’t made it public knowledge either. DADT might have gone, but there were still plenty of people who had a problem with two guys being more than good friends.

“Whatever,” Clay said, busily helping Roque shed his outer clothes.

Pooch laughed shakily, “Like we didn’t know already.”

Even though he wasn’t a man normally given to blushing, Cougar’s chilly cheeks heated up a little as he concentrated on pulling Jensen’s icy coat off.

“Too cold,” he muttered as he felt the lack of warmth trapped beneath Jake’s clothes.

“Hot chocolate,” a cheery voice announced.

Cougar spun round, he’d completely forgotten the happy old man.

“Be easy,” the man said, his eyes twinkling at Cougar as he set down a tray bearing five steaming mugs. “You are all safe here, the storm will not touch you.”

“Nice of you to let us in,” Pooch said, his voice shaking less than before.

“All travellers need rest and sanctuary sometimes,” the old man shrugged. “I would not be worthy of this building if I refused someone who needed help.”

Cougar suddenly realised what the man was wearing. A long brown woollen robe fell to the floor, secured around his waist with a simple cord. Looking around for the first time, he saw a simple altar at the far end of the room.

“Oh,” he muttered, instantly ashamed for not having noticed sooner. Quickly crossing himself and hearing his mother’s scolding voice at the back of his mind, he said, “Um, Brother?”

“Brother Giacomo, to be precise,” the man smiled.

Jensen smiled weakly, still not moving from his position on the floor. “Another Jacob, we get everywhere.”

Brother Giacomo seemed delighted. “Yes, indeed! How wonderful to meet a fellow Jacob, it’s a good name, is it not?”

Jake seemed to have run out of energy, he didn’t reply and closed his eyes. Cougar hustled, stripping off the rest of his outer clothes and briskly rubbing his chilled hands to try to restore some circulation.

“Come on,” Cougar muttered, trying to pull Jake to his feet in order to get him into a chair. Clay came to help and between them they deposited Jensen into a nearby seat.

“Here,” Clay thrust a mug at Cougar.

Cougar nodded gratefully and took a sip. Take care of yourself before you try to take care of a team member, that was what had been drilled into him in training. He was no use to anyone if he couldn’t function properly.

The hot chocolate was like nectar. Sliding down his throat, it coated the raw parts and soothed them like the smoothest honey. A warm glow spread through him as it made its way down into his stomach, defrosting even the most frozen of his toes.

Just for a moment, Cougar wondered exactly what was in the mugs, he thought he detected a good slug of brandy beneath the rich chocolate. But there was time to think about such things later, right now Jensen wasn’t looking too brilliant.

Cougar snatched up the last remaining mug on the tray and wrapped Jensen’s fingers around it, hoping the warmth would revive him a bit. “Come on, drink it.”

Jake smiled wanly and raised the mug to his lips. “Always pushin’ people around, huh, Sergeant?”

Cougar watched in satisfaction as Jensen took a few deep swallows of the thick brown liquid.

Looking over his shoulder, he saw that Pooch was looking more like his usual self, the color had returned to his cheeks with amazing speed. Roque was sitting up straighter, staring into the depths of his mug as he swirled the last of the chocolate around. Clay seemed a bit more like himself, the white, pinched look had vanished from his face.

Turning back to Jensen, Cougar raised his eyebrows. Jake’s cheeks were beginning to regain their usual pinkness and his mouth and nose were definitely no longer white.

Cougar wasn’t about to argue with the restorative powers of Brother Giacomo’s hot chocolate but all the same, it was a little unusual. He glanced at the small monk, who smiled back benignly.

“It’s good, isn’t it?”

Cougar nodded as the others agreed out loud.

Brother Giacomo rocked on his heels. “My own recipe, took me a long time to perfect it.”

“Brandy?” Clay rumbled, tipping his mug vertical in order to get every last drop out of it.

“The best I could get hold of,” Giacomo nodded. “Now, I assume you’ll be staying the night? I’ll just go and find you some blankets to make things a little more comfortable. Excuse me.”

He vanished through a nearby door.

Cougar sank to the floor and rested his forehead on his knees, abruptly exhausted. Jensen’s leg nudged his, it was kind of nice.

“What’s a chapel doing so far up here in the mountains?” Pooch asked wonderingly. “You think Giacomo lives here all the time?”

Cougar heard rather than saw Clay’s shrug.

“Maybe,” Clay muttered. “Who knows? Anyway, at least we’re not out in that damn snow. We’l stay here tonight and get moving in the morning. I dare say the good Brother knows a few other ways down this stupid rock. Jensen? We’ll be needing to talk to Command, so get playing with your radios at first light.”

“’kay,” Jensen agreed, then nudged Cougar again. “Hey, Cougs, you okay?”

It was amazing, he sounded about a thousand percent better than he had a few minutes ago. Cougar smiled tiredly, Brother Giacomo’s hot chocolate worked miracles. Fitting, considering they were in a house of the Lord. It was a very tiny house, but still, it counted just the same as the most towering cathedral.

He glanced up at the little altar and gave a deep sigh. It was a bit like being back at church with his family, the same rush of emotions flooded through him. Amazement, wonder, a tiny bit of fear and apprehension. Cougar quickly crossed himself, then looked up at Jensen, who was still staring at him with a frown on his now pink face.

“Yeah, I’m fine. Just tired.”

They’d all agreed long ago that there was to be no manly denying of needing things when they were in the field. If someone was tired, hungry, thirsty, suffering from blisters, whatever, they had to speak up about it. It was one of the things Cougar loved about his team. There was no bullshit when it mattered, they all lived through one another, probably closer than most real brothers ever were.

Brother Giacomo burst cheerily through the door, almost invisible under a huge pile of brightly coloured blankets.

“Found them!” he proclaimed, setting them carefully down on one of the three little pews. “I am sorry I cannot offer you beds, but unfortunately I only have the one...”

“Don’t worry about it, Brother,” Clay instantly said. “We’ll be fine out here, thank you.”

Giacomo bobbed his head, “Soldiers are well used to sleeping in strange places, are you not?”

For some reason, Cougar felt faintly ashamed to have come into Giacomo’s little chapel carrying weapons. Despite the savagery of the storm outside, bringing reminders of mankind’s warlike nature into such a place seemed...well, wrong.

The sense of peace which pervaded the building was strong enough to make Cougar wonder whether perhaps in another life, he might have chosen the same profession as Giacomo. His eyes slid to Jensen. No, maybe he was never destined to become a man of the cloth. He’d happily give up a lot in his life, material things didn’t really hold that much value to him, but giving up the thing he had with Jake...nah. God would understand. The Catholic side of him demanded he feel guilty about wanting another man but he pushed it away. Jake wasn’t something to be guilty about.

Cougar looked round and found Giacomo’s sharp green eyes on him again. The same vague, niggling feeling trickled down his spine. Those eyes were far too knowledgeable. Giacomo smiled gently, understandingly. Cougar looked down at his hands.

“I searched but sadly I do not have any extra pillows,” Giacomo said, pressing a blanket into Cougar’s arms.

“We’ll be fine,” Cougar said softly. “Grazie.”

One by one Giacomo gave out the blankets, then stood back as though to admire his handiwork. “Please, make yourselves as comfortable as you can. If you’re hungry...”

“Oh, it’s okay, Brother,” Clay broke in, smiling gratefully. “We’ve got our own rations, we can’t take your food. Up here you might need it if you get snowed in. How long do you live here for? Do you get posted here for a set time or something?”

Giacomo looked at Clay for a moment, his cheeks reddened by the glow from the brazier. Then he smiled, nodded to each of them in turn and said, “Good night. I hope you sleep well. There will be hot chocolate ready in the morning.”

Then he turned and vanished through the little door behind him.

There was silence for a moment as they all watched the door swing quietly shut. Naturally it was Jensen who spoke first.

“Huh. Enigmatic and a man of God. Cool. Good exit, too.”

****

Cougar woke to bright sunlight spearing its way through his eyelids with scalpel-like precision. Wincing, he buried his face further into the softness beneath him. But sleep rushed away from him as he heard Pooch mutter,

“Wha’? Where are...what’s...where the hell are we?”

Something beside Cougar moved, with a flush of hot embarrassment, he realised he’d been sleeping spooned up behind Jake. Regret stung at him as Jensen shifted and sat up, rubbing his eyes and reaching for his glasses.

“What the..? Cougar, Cougs, wake up. _Cougar_!”

Jensen smacked Cougar repeatedly on the shoulder. Growling, Cougar glared up at him, his eyes feeling like they were full of grit.

“ _Cougs_ ,” Jensen said insistently. “What the fuck’s going on? Where are we? Get up, Cougs.”

Clay and Roque added their sleep-rough voices to the chorus of ‘what the hell?’

Groaning, Cougar pushed himself upright, then froze. What the fuck? They were in a deep snowdrift. Soft, fluffy snow covered each of them like duvets. The bright sky above them was piercingly blue and clear of clouds.

Looking around, Cougar tried to corral his scrambled thoughts. “Didn’t we...there was a chapel...Brother Giacomo...wasn’t there?”

“Yeah,” Jensen said softly, staring around wide-eyed. “At least, I think there was.”

“There was a chapel here,” Clay said firmly. “Where else would we have gotten these?” He flapped the bright woollen blanket which covered him from neck to feet beneath the snow.

“This is fucking weird,” Roque said, sounding understandably freaked out.

“How can we have gotten out here?” Pooch asked, screwing up his face. “Did we all sleepwalk or something?”

“Sleepwalk from where?” Clay rumbled. “There’s nothing up here. We’re on a fucking mountaintop.”

Cougar rubbed a hand over his face. Frowning, he realised his skin was warm, not chilled and blue as it should have been after being covered with snow for God knew how long.

“Guys.” Jensen’s voice was flat and so unlike normal, Cougar instantly looked over at him.

Jake pointed at a smaller snowdrift nearby. A tray of five mugs sat there, cheerfully steaming in the morning light.

“He said there’d be hot chocolate in the morning.”

“This is messed up.” Pooch scrambled to his feet.

“It was here, wasn’t it?” Jensen said, doubtful all of a sudden.

“It was all here.” Clay’s voice left no room for argument.

Cougar slowly stood and brushed the snow from his uniform. A look at his watch told him that it was seven in the morning. Brother Giacomo’s voice seemed to echo across the packed snow.

“...hot chocolate in the morning...’

With a tiny smile, Cougar strode to the tray and picked up two of the mugs. Handing one to Jensen, he sipped at it. It was as warm and comforting as it had been the previous night, with the same kick of brandy.

Jake looked a little less convinced but after watching Cougar carefully for a moment, obviously making sure he didn’t keel over or anything, he too took a drink.

“Look, I don’t know what the hell’s going on here,” Clay glared at each of them in turn. “But this doesn’t go in any mission report, okay? Command would send us all for psych evals if we tried to tell ‘em about this.”

“Agreed,” Roque muttered, still looking around with a haunted expression on his face.

Pooch nodded and reached for a hot chocolate. “I’ve seen some messed up shit but this is something else.”

“Mass hallucination?” Jensen mumbled into his mug. “Joint dreaming? Drugs?” He shook his head. “I got nothing.”

Cougar stared at the thick brown liquid in his own mug and kept his words behind his teeth. He wasn’t the most religious of men, didn’t really have time to be, being crippled by guilt over killing those who needed to die wouldn’t let him operate to his highest standard, would it? But even he could recognise a miracle when he saw one.

They would have died up there on that mountain. If Brother Giacomo and his little chapel hadn’t appeared for them, the Losers would be nothing more than frozen corpses. Raising his drink in a little toast, Cougar sent a thank-you winging its way heavenward.

“Cougs?” Jensen’s eyes were the same colour as the sky overhead. “Any insights as to what fucked up mess we’ve landed in this time?”

Cougar waited for a moment, then shook his head. “No idea.”

“Hey,” Roque called from the far side of the little plateau they were on. “There’s another way down over here. Looks easier than that goat path you were trying to make us go down last night.”

“What?” Clay moved to join him. “That wasn’t there last night, we scoured this place. Cougar scoured this place.”

A faint stab of pride that Clay considered him to be good enough to be worth believing, warmed Cougar as much as the hot chocolate.

“Either way, I’m not gonna argue,” Pooch picked up his pack and shrugged it on. “Let’s get the hell out of here, this place is fucked up.”

Muttering agreement, Clay and Roque grabbed their own packs. Jensen moved more slowly to retrieve his.

“It was real, wasn’t it, Cougs? I mean, the blankets and the hot chocolate, they had to get here somehow. Giacomo was real, wasn’t he?” He frowned, “This is gonna mess me up for weeks.”

“Don’t think about it too much,” Cougar said briskly, checking his gear was still in his pack. “Just accept it.”

“If you say ‘the Lord works in mysterious ways’, I might have to punch you,” Jensen grinned as he spoke to take the sting out of his words.

Cougar shrugged. “We’re alive, that’s the end of it.”

“This is true,” Jensen conceded. His grin widened. “The world according to Cougar, ‘you’re alive, stop asking why and get on with it’.”

“Yep, sounds about right.”

“You two ready?” Clay called. “We need to get off this rock before another storm hits.”

“Lay on, MacDuff and damned he who first cries, ‘Hold! Enough!’” Jensen replied, bowing low and nearly falling over as the gear on his back slid toward the ground.

“It is too early in the day for Shakespeare,” Pooch grumbled.

Clay and Roque turned away and made for the path, shaking their heads at their tech’s nuttiness.

Cougar raised an eyebrow. “MacBeth? Now? Little ominous, isn’t it?”

“Nah,” Jensen smiled again. “Seemed to fit pretty well.” Clapping Cougar on the shoulder, he followed Pooch toward the far easier path down the mountain.

Cougar looked around the snowy plateau. The tray of mugs still sat in their drift and the blankets lay where they’d been abandoned. On a impulse, he picked them up and folded them neatly, stacking them into a little pile.

Crossing himself again, he muttered another thank-you prayer. Brother Giacomo had saved all their lives, just how he’d done it Cougar had no idea but if it meant he got to see Jensen smile a few more times, it was worth it.

“Cougar! You building a snowman up there or what?” Jensen’s voice echoed flatly around the mountain top.

With one last smile at the pile of blankets, Cougar turned and followed his team.


End file.
